Aswan, land of Nubia, was famous for its ancient granite quarries for immense monuments. It is currently the popular destination for Nile River cruised from Luxor. Nile cruising is a big industry with over 400 floating hotels docked at port. It was a nice relaxing break from the monument marathon. We still made a couple stops along the way.
12/22/10: Nearing Aswan. Took horse carriage to Edfu Temple of Horus in the morning. Edfu means battleground, where Horus avenged Osiris by battling & defeating uncle Seth, represented by hippo or crocodile. The temple was built over a span of 120 year during the Ptolemy, Greco-Roman period and is still very well preserved. Inscriptions document ceremony joining Horus & wife Hathor. Many similarities in constructions between Edfu Horus & his wife’s Dandara Hathor temples. Inner sanctuary, holy of holy has replica of cedar wood ship.
In the afternoon visited, Kom Ombo double temple of Horus falcon god and his evil brother Sobek crocodile god. Kom Ombo means “place of business on a hill”. Saw carvings of ancient Egyptian calendar of daily festivals, tools used for childbirth, Nile-o-meter for determining taxes, and canal system for water purification & foot bath.
12/23/10: Docked in Aswan to visit Philae Temple of Isis. After the construction of Aswan Dam, original Philae island was flooded & temple submerged. In late 1960s, it was moved stone by stone to current location. Previously included 13 shrines, now 3 remain: Isis, Hathor and Roman Emporer Hadrian.
12/24/10: Nice change in pace from the ancient temples. After disembarking from cruise, took a motor boat tour of Nile to Aswan Botanical Garden then Nubian Village. Nubia was the ancient kingdom locate in modern day south Egypt and Sudan. There are currently about 9,000 Nubian residents in the village. They live a very simple lifestyle and create colorful African style art. We toured a native’s house, played with a baby crocodile, and the kids got Henna paintings of a flower & ankh symbol of life. We ended the tour with a delicious Nubian lunch. In the afternoon, we had trouble getting internet connection in the room and behold … Santa Claus showed up to fix our technical issues and bearing little gifts for the kids. Grateful for the Muslim Christmas spirit.
12/25/10: Quiet and easy Christmas Day. Short tour of Nubian Museum then the rest of the day free. Nubians believe themselves to be direct descendants of ancient Egyptians. They believe modern Egyptians have been “diluted” by Greek, Roman, Arabic and other European influences. Unfortunately, much of their culture and monuments are submerged in Lake Nasser after the Aswan Dam. Remnants have been collected and documented at this museum.
12/26/10: Woke up at 4pm for 6:15am flight to Abu Simbel for the great temple of Ramses II and his wife Nefertari. Temple of Ramses II is the old documentary of a battle, between Egypt and Hittites at Khadesh and also depicts Nubian prisoners involved in the construction. The innermost sanctuary contains Amun, Ra, Ptah, and Ramses himself deified. Beside his massive temple, he built a temple to Hathor, dedicated to his beloved wife Nefertari. He actually had over 40 wive and 100+ children. The monuments relocated in the 1960s block by block due to flooding from the Aswan Dam and an artificial mountain was created to support the immense structures. Returned to Aswan shortly before noon to read msnbc.com headline news about bus crash killing 8 Americans on the same trip this morning. We were originally scheduled to take the same convoy but changed plans just a few days ago.
12/27/10: Last day of planned tours in Egypt, exploring Aswan: High Dam, Unfinished Obelisk in Granite Quarry, felucca sailing to ruins on Elephantine Island and along the Nile.
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